1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to online comparison shopping and, more particularly, to a method and system for providing improved online comparison shopping.
2. Discussion of the Related Art
There are a number of websites that offer online comparison shopping. These websites maintain searchable databases containing a variety of different vendor and product information supplied by online vendors. Conventionally, these websites are configured to search for the lowest prices on products requested by a user. Some websites such as http://www.pricegrabber.com provide more sophisticated online comparison shopping wherein the user can enter a shipping location so that shipping and tax costs are included in the compared prices. Other online comparison shopping websites such as http://www.travelocity.com allow the user to purchase the lowest cost flight from a range of different airlines.
PCT Patent Publication No. WO 00/43850 (PCT International Application No. PCT/US00/01401) discloses another online comparison shopping system. In this system, a user is able to purchase multiple items online from different online vendors using a single purchase order. For each item to be purchased, the system compares prices from different vendors and provides a comparison list of vendors that offer the requested item along with the price of the item offered by each vendor. The user views this list and selects one vendor from the list as well as the quantity of the item to be purchased. The user then adds the selected item to his “virtual shopping cart”. This process is repeated for each item that the user wishes to purchase. Once all the items are placed in the virtual shopping cart, the user enters his or her shipping and payment information. This causes the system to generate a single purchase order identifying the user's selected items from multiple vendors. The system disaggregates this order by sending an appropriate portion of the order to each vendor.
Problems, however, exist in such conventional online comparison shopping systems. A price comparison between multiple vendors who offer a requested product is made only for one product at a time. This means that, for each item to be purchased, the user must individually request for a comparison list, view the comparison list and manually select an item/vendor from the list. This process can be time consuming and tedious to the user, especially when a large number of items are to be purchased. Furthermore, once the shopping order has been placed to different vendors, the user must track a plurality of different shipments of the purchased items by the different vendors. This process also takes a considerable amount of the user's time, and can often aggravate the user.
Accordingly, there is a need for an improved method and system for providing online comparison shopping which overcomes the above-described problems and other problems associated with conventional online comparison shopping methods and systems.